Easy Banana Bread (With Half the Sugar!)

It reminds me of my Grandma, Jeannie. She was known for her banana cakes with cream cheese frosting. Her cakes, like her buttermilk biscuits, were always delicious.

For the cake, Jeannie used a recipe from the Original Joy of Cooking, along with “White Icing II” from the same book. Both are wonderful recipes, but I’ve made some changes to better fit my laziness, er, lifestyle.

Unlike the JOC, I don’t sift the flour. Does anyone? (My sifter is currently outside in the kids’ sandbox. I traded it to them for the return of my OXO salad spinner last week. No backsies, obvs.)

Also, unlike the JOC, I don’t cream the butter and sugar. Instead, I melt the butter in the microwave and mix it in with a spatula. (While there may be a textural benefit to creaming the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, that benefit is hugely offset by the arguing avoided about who gets to operate the mixer first. Trust me :)

Another difference between my recipe and the JOC’s is that I use half as much sugar and twice as many bananas. With the natural sweetness added from the extra bananas, the reduction in refined sugar is hardly noticeable.

Finally, I don’t use buttermilk. Why? Because I have never in my entire life contemporaneously had buttermilk in my fridge AND over-ripe bananas on my counter. Apparently the two ingredients cannot co-exist in my kitchen. And since over-ripe bananas are nearly always at the bottom of our fruit bowl, the buttermilk had to go.

All in all, I think you’ll like my changes! This recipe is very easy (great for making with the kids!), and the final product comes out with rich banana flavor and wonderfully moist texture. Then all you need for serving is a pat of butter and a tall glass of milk. Yum!

Easy Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

3 very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, baking soda, salt and flour.

In a separate bowl, add the eggs, bananas, butter and vanilla.

Stir to combine. (Or get your kids to!)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine. (If using walnuts, fold them in here.) Batter will be thick and chunky.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60-65 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of loaf comes out clean.

2 Responses to Easy Banana Bread (With Half the Sugar!)

I LOVE banana bread. My recipe came from a bag of flour, brand I do not remember. But guess what? It is essentially identical to the one you posted.
Coincidence. When I lived in Brownsville and Harlingen where they were readily available I used the big local bananas that people called “horse bananas.” The bread was better with them, I thought, than with the regular Cavendish bananas from the store.